Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.1 Ch.14: The Antithesis

Once the laning phase of the match came to an end, Yuel left Trever alone in Bot Lane and roamed around the map. At this point of the game, the Support's role became similar to that of the Jungler's: he traveled across the jungle and ganked lanes. Except, as a Support, Yuel didn't have the burst damage of a real Jungler, so his job was to set up kills with his CC.

"Their Warlock is going to rotate to Top after clearing this wave." Yuel said. "Aron, can you help me gank him?"

"And you're sure he'll rotate?" Aron asked. "He may try pushing the lane."

"Deduct points from my grade if I'm wrong." Yuel answered boldly. That was his new way of dealing with Aron's interrogations. Attempting to explain his reasoning in real time only made him needlessly nervous and confused. So, instead of dealing with that stress, he decided to sidestep that problem.

"Very well." Aron invaded the enemy jungle to cut off the Warlock's predicted rotation path.

Just as Yuel said, the Warlock showed up. Yuel pulled the Warlock close with Nature's Grasp, then Aron leapt on the victim and rent him asunder.

『An enemy has been killed!』

Flawless execution. Time and again, Yuel proved his ability to predict the enemies' movements and to strike their weakest spots. What started off as Yuel harassing the enemy Pirate soon developed into him terrorizing enemies all across the map. The ones who actually scored kills and made impressive plays were his teammates, but the mastermind behind many of these plays was none other than Yuel.

Aron told everybody to follow Yuel's suggestions as part of the test, effectively turning Yuel into the team's shot-caller. Aron still handled the big strategic decisions, but everybody were obligated to follow Yuel's tactics as well. This allowed him to easily move his allies around as he saw fit. Of course, it also came with the pressure of being graded for each important decision he made, but he got used to that by now... sort of. For the most part. Yeah, no problem. Gulp.

With his authority as the shot-caller, he made his teammates catch predictable enemy gankers off guard and turn the tables on them. In addition, he told his allies to ambush enemies who farmed jungle camps at predictable times. And, on top of all that, he predicted the escape routes of injured enemies and pulled them through walls with Nature's Grasp.

He didn't simply punish misplays, he also exploited the predictable habits of his enemies. The higher he climbed in Ranked, the less and less obvious mistakes his enemies made. Therefore, only punishing "mistakes" was no longer enough. He had to analyze and deconstruct every little move his enemies made, all for the sake of catching them off guard in one important play.

As expected, his current opponents were as bulletproof as the enemies he met at high ranks online. In fact, they were possibly the strongest opponents he had ever faced so far. Catching them commit an outright mistake was nigh impossible, but exploiting the weaknesses in their playstyles was still within Yuel's expertise. As long they were humans, he could find flaws in their plays.

"Wow! You rock, bro!" Trever grinned as he scored yet another kill off the Pirate thanks to Yuel's advice. At some point, Trever promoted Yuel from "Rookie" all the way to "Bro". That was the top respect title, apparently.

After killing the Pirate three times, Trever gained a huge advantage in Bot Lane. He was two levels ahead of the Pirate and the enemy's Turret was about to crumble. But, that's all. Despite the huge advantage in the lane, that's as far as he progressed.

It was understandable, considering Ranger was, at its core, an assassin class meant for jungling. "Ranger Carry" was an unconventional built, which worked relatively well because of the Ranger's basic attacks: long-ranged arrow shots befitting a real Carry.